//^s^Jfr^m^rt 



|E 448 
,L362 






COLONIZATION. 



COLONIZATION. 



A NOTICE OF 



I VICTOR HUGO'S VIEWS OF SLAVERY I 
IN THE UNITED STATES, I 



IN A LETTER FE 



JOHNH. B. LATROBE 




OF BALTIMORE 



TO THOMAS SUFFER N, 

OF NEV/ YORK. 



BALTIMORE: 
PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY. 

1851. 






\ 

I 



\ \ I 






The following letter was written at the instance 
of two valued friends, during an August visit to 
Newport. It made its public appearance first in 
"The Newport Daily News," from which it 
found its way into other newspapers in different 
parts of the country. The calls upon the writer 
for copies have led to the publication of it in the 
present shape, for distribution among his friends, 
with such additions and alterations as seemed to 
be necessary to correct the carelessness of the 
original hasty composition. 

Baltimore, Sept. 15, 1851. 



C 11 1 r II 1 



I, LETTER TO THOMAS SUFFEHN. 
II. VIGTOH HUGO TO MRS. CHAPMAN. 
Ill, JOHN II. L. LATROBE TO VICTOR HUGO. 



"There must be in every well-constitute J State a certain 
homogeneousness of parts. Not only is it necessary that t^e 
governing power be supreme, and free from any dread of 
subversion; but the several members also of the body politic 
must be in harmony, both among themselves and with the 
governing power likewise." 

'•A foreign mass in the midst of a society with which it 
cannot assimilate is as a dead member, through v/liich the 
life blood of the body social does not circulate; if inactive, it 
becomes the seat of putrescence and gangrene, which will 
shortly spread throughout the whole system, unless recourse 
be had to amputation. But in a community where this 
heterogeneous part is active, being quickened by motives 
and interests of its own, the disorder becomes ten fold worse. 
It has no emblem, unless we imagine the body of a man 
possessed at once by two discordaiat spirits." 

JOHN L. cahev's ■' ruonaurs co.-jckksino iiuursric si.avkry." 



I • 



TO THOMAS SUFEEEN, ESQ. 



OCEAN HOUSE, NEV/PORT, K I. 

August go, 1851. 

MY DEAR SIR: 

The following is, probably, the substance 
of my remarks, during my conversation yesterday 
with Mr. J. W. Coleman and yourself, with Victor 
Hugo's letter to Mrs. Chapman, of July 6th, 1851, 
I on the subject of Slavery in the United States, before 
us. I commit them to paper at your request. 

The letter of Victor Hugo is characteristic. It has 
been translated so as to do justice to the terse and epi- 
grammatic style of the author. Argument it scarcely 
pretends to ; and while you feel, that it is calculated 



COLONIZATION. 

to produce wrong impressions, and obtain an influ- 
ence to which it is not entitled, it is difficult to find 
any salient point on which to hang the true view of 
the subject. 

The best way, perhaps, will be to consider the 
letter as the expression of a strong sympathy on the 
part of the writer, in the labors of a lady engaged 
in promoting the cause of Anti-Slavery, — or, to speak 
more accurately. Modern Abolition, in the United 
States. Indeed, Victor Hugo begins by saying, 
that he has been desired by her " to lift up his 
voice;" and so he does. 

It is plain that both of these persons belong to 
the class which desires the immediate emancipation 
of the slaves in the United States, under the impres- 
sion, that, not only will the country be relieved, 
thereby, from a stigma which they assert rests upon 
it, but the emancipated slaves will, at once, be ele- 
vated to a proper rank in society, and permanently 
benefited. Both of them, it is taken for granted, 
would shrink from the idea of a master's destroying 
his slave in order that he might clear his conscience 
of the guilt of holding him in bondage. Nor would 
they, knowingly, sanction the employment of any 
means which indirectly, no matter how remotely, 
produced the same result. This being the case then, 

16" 



if we can shew, that the success of their projects in- j 
volves the sacrifice of the objects of their benevolence, i 
they must either admit such projects to be altogether 
wrong, or disown what we have accorded to them, — | 
an honest purpose to benefit the black race. The I 
reply to them, therefore, which will cover, too, what- 
ever there is of argument in Victor Hugo's letter, | 
must be found in an enquiry into the probabilities of \ 
the future, should their anticipations be realized, that \ 
"within a time, not distant, the United States will \ 
repudiate Slavery with horror." 

Nothing is easier than to cry out " emancipation | 
forthwith:" but there are a good many practical | 
difficulties in the way of it, which modern abolition, 
whose characteristic is a total disregard of circum- 
stances, does not seem, heretofore, to have taken into 
consideration. The care of the aged, the insane, the 
idiotic, infants without mothers, and mothers helpless 
because of their very infants, which now falls upon 
the masters of slaves, but which would be the duty 
of no one, were the masters discharged from the obli- 
gation, would be a matter of no little consequence 
and difficulty, in the event of a general and imme- 
diate emancipation. But, suppose this and all other 
practical difficulties to be surmounted, we come to 
the time, when, legislation having done every thing 



COLONIZATION. 

in its power, the country would present the spectacle 
of two free races, of different colors, with equal rights, 
as citizens, under the law: — the black race, com- 
posed of colored persons born free and emancipated 
slaves, numbering some four millions, and the white 
race, composed of native born whites and whites 
from other countries, numbering some twenty-one 
millions. 

But, however liberal legislation might be, there 
would be some things which it could not do. It 
could give political, but not social position. It could 
empower the emancipated slaves to hold property 
\ and to vote, which has been already done in some 
( of the States; but it could not remove the prejudice 
\ which the white population entertain against their 
( race. It could not change those physical character- 
i- istics, which affect association with them, either as 
i regards their appearance or otherwise. It could not 
\ induce fathers to give their daughters to them in 
I marriage, or reconcile the daughters to receive them 
I as husbands. Nor would this impotency of the law 
\ be of present duration only. As already said, some 
\ of the States have done for the negro race, all that 
I legislation could effect, and this too, generations 
I since. But no where do wc hear of any such a 
J change in public opinion, or any prospect of such a 

Y2" 



COLONIZATION. 

change, as promises, now, or hereafter, to better their 
social condition in any of the particulars we have 
just mentioned. 

Legislation, then, having exhausted itself, without 
having been able to remove the prejudices of the 
whites against the free blacks or emancipated slaves, 
or give them social position, it would have to be ad- 
mitted, as one among the probabilities of the future, 
that the two races, thus separate and distinct, would 
forever remain so, or, remain so, at least, until amal- 
gamation, supposing that, under any circumstances, 
it could be relied on, became common and available. 
Whether, when color was no longer the badge of ser- 
vitude, intermarriages and the gradual absorption, in 
many generations, of one race into the other, would 
take place, must of course be a matter of speculation. 
That these intermarriages are now repugnant to the 
general feeling of our entire country, is a fact, and 
as such may be dealt with. The future is a conjec- 
ture wholly, — about which one man's opinion may 
be entitled to as much consideration as another's. 
Prejudice, however, is traditionary; and even after the 
white generations which have seen slavery have died 
out, the prejudices, originating from that condition, 
will be handed down from generation to generation, 
maintaining and strengthening the barrier which color, 

13 



COLONIZATION. 



now and forever, must interpose to any general amal- 
gamation. 

This point is dwelt upon because of its import- 
ance. It lies at the root of the questions at issue. 
If emancipation, present or gradual, is to produce 
amalgamation by intermarriage between the white and 
black races of the United States, as they will at any 
time stand related and affected towards each other, 
we give up the case. A belief to this effect is the 
only apology for modern abolition. 

The past furnishes no grounds for such a belief. 
All the probabilities of the future are against it. No 
argument has been attempted to support it. We 
doubt whether it has ever found a dozen respectable 
and open advocates. So that we assert again, at the 
risk of unnecessary repetition, that the two races, 
whatever might be their legal rights, would remain 
separate and distinct, while they continued to occupy 
the same land. On the truth of this position our 
argument rests. Of this each one must judge for 
himself. The reasons of our own faith are inferences 
drawn from existing facts. 

The next point of enquiry is the probable rela- 
tions of these two free and distinct races, while 
occupying the same land. On this point it was to 
have been expected, that Victor Hugo's sympathy 

14" 



COLONIZATION. 

with what he calls "the august cause of slavery,"* 
and a natural curiosity as to the subsequent condition 
of the new-made freemen, would have induced him 
to make some investigations ; especially too when he 
had at hand, in history, ample sources of information. 
He does not appear, from any thing that his letter 
contains, to have done so. 

Had Victor Hugo reflected, as would have been 
proper, before he committed himself by writing his 
letter of the 6th July, he would have remembered that 
all history teaches but one lesson on this point of the 
enquiry, which is, that two races which cannot 

AMALGAMATE BY INTERMARRIAGE, CAN EXIST IN 
THE SAME LAND ONLY IN THE RELATION OF MASTER 
AND SLAVE ; OR, IF BOTH ARE NOMINALLY FREE, 
IN THAT OF THE OPPRESSOR AND THE OPPRESSED. 

The instances are striking, numerous and notori- 
ous. The Moor, superior in learning to the Spaniard, 
but not amalgamating with him, was expelled the land, 
or remained as an ill-treated inferior. The Saxons 
and the Normans were in continual strife, until inter- 
marriages amalgamated them as one people. Our own 
country, in its Indian history, presents another in- 
stance of the truth of the dogma. In Mexico, the 

*It is presumed this is a mistake of the translator. Most probably, 
the original reads de I'esclave— of the slave. 



15 



COLONIZATION. 



Spaniard and the Indians amalgamated, and formed i 
one people : but, what a people ! ! ! In the old United \ 
States, it is true, that some of the best blood of the 
land, noble in spirit, steady in purpose, and brilliant | 
in talent, flows down from an Indian maternal ancestry 
to the present day : but yet, the Indian in our country 
will soon be a memory only. There was an experi- 
ence therefore to which Victor Hugo might have re- 
ferred, touching future probabilities, should modern 
Abolition, whose advocate he is, be triumphant in the \ 
end. It is, indeed, a pity that he did not take a s 
broader view of the subject, than he seems to have 
done, before, at the instance of Mrs. Chapman, he 
wrote the letter which we refer to. Had he done 
this justice to himself and to us, an indifferent cause, 
we think, would have lost the weight of a great 
name — but humanity might have been none the worse 
off on that account. 

Nor is history, in its teachings in regard to the 
relations of two races that cannot amalgamate by 
intermarriage, while living in the same land, without 
the confirmation of every day's experience, in our 
own country. 

In the city of New York, where the negro may be 
a voter, he is not permitted to drive a dray or a cart. 
1 am not aware whether this is by law, or is the effect 

^ i6 



COLONIZATION. 

i of a combination among white competitors : but the 
\ inference is the same in either case. In Philadelphia, 
\ he has again and again been made the object of 
attack by an infuriated populace. In Cincinnati, to 
I protect him from such attack, it has been necessary 
I to parade cannon in the streets. Boston and Hart- 
ford have both witnessed scenes of violence, when 
the negro was the victim; — and yet all these cities 
I are in free States, where the negro has enjoyed for 
years nearly, or quite, all the rights which law could 
give to him. What hope is there of a different and 
better future for the black man in these respects? 
What prospect is there of a present change for the 
benefit, either of those now free, or the whole race, 
should a general emancipation take place? None 
I under the canopy of heaven ! A more barren present, 
I a more hopeless future than that of the free colored 
people of the United States cannot exist. America 
is the w^hite man's home, and his exclusively. God 
j hath so appointed it. 

! So far from the future's holding out a prospect 

i of better things, each day of the future as it is ab- 
sorbed into the past, makes matters worse for the free 
I blacks, — small as is their present number, compared 
i with the whole colored population, which, through the 
; agency of immediate emancipation, it is proposed to 



COLONIZATION. 

t 

make a free race. Every arrival from Europe is a 

sign and a warning to them. During the year 1850, 
the total immigration to the United States from all 
foreign countries, can hardly have been less than four 
hundred thousand persons ; persons of a class, that, 
at once, enter into competition with the black man 
in all the avenues of labor — and in most of them 
drive him to the wall. In Baltimore, my home, ten 
years since, the shipping at Fell's Point was loaded 
by free colored stevedores. The labor at the coal 
yards was free colored labor. In the rural districts 
around Baltimore, the principal city of a slave State, 
free colored laborers, ten years since, got in the har- 
vest, worked the mine banks, made the fences, and, 
indeed, supplied, to a great extent, all agricultural 
wants in this respect. Now all this is changed. The 
white man stands in the black man's shoes ; or else, 
is fast getting into them. And where, fifteen years 
ago, nearly all the signs above shop doors on Fell's 
Point showed English names — now two-thirds of 
them are German; a fact of notoriety and almost 
daily comment. 

In Cincinnati, the labor that used to be performed 
by free blacks in the great pork establishments, is now 
performed by white men, Irishmen and Germans ; and, 
as Mr. Coleman can bear witness, coming as he does 



IS 



COLONIZATION. 

from that city, the firemen on the steamboats on the 
western waters are now whites, where they used to 
be free colored men. The negro's song, as he filled 
his furnaces, has ceased on the Ohio and the Missis- 
sippi. Instances of this sort, where the white man 
has driven the black man to the wall, might be mul- 
tiplied indefinitely. 

Nor must it be forgotten, that this state of things 
exists at a time when there is a mighty drain upon 
the Atlantic border for laborers to supply the vast 
country lying between the crests of the Alleghany 
and the shores of the Pacific. But this drain cannot 
last forever; and when it ceases, should the two 
races, which we have shown must ever remain dis- 
tinct, still occupy the land, there will be a strife for 
bread, fearful and murderous ; a strife to be described 
in all its horrors by some future Victor Hugo, should 
talent, such as his, be perpetuated for the occasion ; 
a strife in which the fate of the weaker, and colored 
race, may be terribly imagined ; a strife, for which 
Ireland would have furnished a prototype, had its 
population, in 1847, been divided into white and 
black, in the same proportions as they exist in this 
country, and entertaining the same feelings towards 
each other, that prevail here; and had two men of 
different color been required to divide between them, 

19 



COLONIZATION. 

the loaf not sufficient to satisfy the craving appetite 
of one starving wretch. 

The teachings of history, therefore, and every 
day's experience, combine to satisfy us in regard to 
the probable condition of things in this country, 
should Mrs. Chapman's labors and Victor Hugo's 
uplifted voice succeed in accomplishing the purposes 
of modern abolition. Nor can the result be obviated, | 
unless by the amalgamation of the white and colored \ 
races of our country, by intermarriage between them ; \ 
a thing which many of those shouting louder even than \ 
Victor Hugo would recoil from in disgust. Whether \ 
this disgust is a prejudice, or an instinct, it is not \ 
necessary to enquire : we speak of it as a fact. \ 

The probable condition of the two races, suppos- ; 
ing both free, has been inferred partly from the actual 
present condition of the two, when only a portion of 
one of them is free. With the condition of the slaves 
in the United States, the present argument is in no 
wise connected. The slave is protected and provided 
for by his master. He does not come into contact, 
to his prejudice or inconvenience, with the white 
labor already in our country and thronging into it 
from all other countries. It is upon the free black, 
left to shift for himself, that the agencies we have 
been describing operate. As he is affected now, so 



COLONIZATION. 

will the whole race be affected when the whole race 
is free.* 

But, putting aside the idea of a general eman- 
xjipation, occasional emancipations, often of whole 
families, oftener of individuals, are constantly taking 
place ; and this and the natural increase of the free 
blacks would seem, wholly irrespective of modern 
abolition, to be bringing us nearer to the time, when 
there must be a strife between the whites and the free 
blacks, if they persist in remaining together ; so that, 
apart from Victor Hugo's letter, which is answered by 
showing, from existing facts and fair inferences, the 
condition to which the scheme in which his voice has 
been "lifted up," would reduce the objects of his 
bounty, it becomes important to enquire how the evils 
of a state of things, to be anticipated, at any rate, can 
best be obviated. 

In other words, looking upon slavery as an exist- 
ing institution, which all such efforts as those of the 
individuals in question, must be powerless to affect, 
in any other way than to corroborate it, and which 
has no other relation to results than as emancipations 
from it, more or less frequent, may add to the num- 
ber of free blacks ; and looking to these last as alone 

* This subject of distinct races is admirably, and at length, dis- 
cussed in John L. Carey's " Thoughts Concerning Domestic Slavery." 

21 



COLONIZATION. 

! interested in the present enquiry, and as being numer- 
\ ous enough to make the subject, as it affects them, 
I one of the deepest interest, both politically and phi- 
I lanthropically, — we ask the question, — what is to be 
J the result of their presence among us; and, if it is an 
J evil, how is it to be obviated? And, leaving Victor 
Hugo, we go to this branch of our subject. 

The nature of the evil suggests the character of 
the remedy. If the two races cannot live together, 
except in the relations we have referred to, they must 
separate. The colonization of the free negroes, and 
of such slaves as may be emancipated, from time to 
time, is, in other words, the only remedy. 

When, from any cause, a family or a nation ceases 
to live in harmony, separation, or colonization, if you 
please, is and ever has been the remedy. All coloni- 
zations, too, have been alike, with some differences in 
the impelling motive ; and, leaving out of view the 
penal colonies of different countries, and some pauper 
emigrants from Europe to the United States — it will 
be found that colonists have, as a general rule, left 
their old homes to belter their condition, at their own 
cost. Of the same character must be the coloniza- 
tion of the free colored people of the United States. 
The must go for their own good ; and they must ulti- 
mately pay their own expenses. As a class, they are 

22 



COLONIZATION. 




better able to do so than the Irish and German emi- 
grants who come in ship loads to America. They 
have, generally, when destitute, more friends to help 
them than these have. The country to which they 
must emigrate has been designated, not by the socie- 
ties that have established colonies there, but by our 
common Maker. It is the only country in the world 
where the white man cannot live ; and fever and death 
will protect the black emigrant in Africa, as with a 
w^all of flame, from being followed by his old com- 
petitors, in search of the golden sands, which are 
brought down by the Niger and the Cavally, as well 
as by the Sacramento and the San Joaquin. 

It is the country to which circumstances will ulti- 
mately force him to remove. Circumstances, advan- 
cing beyond all control, with the crushing force of 
an avalanche; but, unlike an avalanche, slowly and 
with due warning, so that they who perish before 
them will be the authors of their own destruction. 

What these circumstances are, we have already 
indicated, in speaking of the condition of the two 
races in this country, so far as both are now free, 
and of the hopelessness of any change to benefit the 
weaker, until their separation shall take place. To 
illustrate their present effect, even upon intelligent 
free colored persons, I will venture to mention to you 

"23" 



COLONIZATION. 

one or two cases within my own recent personal \ 
experience. \ 

Within the last two months, a colored clergyman 
of the Methodist Church, called on me, as the Presi- s 
dent of the Maryland State Colonization Society, for \ 
some information connected with the Society's affairs. | 
He had, some years before, seceded from the religious | 
society to which he belonged, and had been enabled, \ 
through his activity and popularity, to build up a 
church for himself. The cause of his secession was 
the stand which the Methodist Church had taken in 
favor of colonization, to which the person alluded to 
was then bitterly opposed. He was a well-informed 
man on general subjects, and had been practising 
physic with success, among his own color, for several 
years. After his business was concluded, I asked him 
to tell me frankly, why he was going to Africa, not 
only with his own family, but with some fifty or sixty 
of his friends, who proposed to accompany him. His 
answer, as nearly as I can recollect, in words, was 
this: "My practice as a physician has been gradually- 
increasing from year to year, and is now larger than 
ever it was. My patients are generally the same indi- 
viduals. My popularity, as far as I can judge, is 
unimpaired ; but my income has, year after year, been 
growing less and less, and is now less than ever it 

'24' 



COLONIZATION. 

was. My wife and myself have been struck with this, 
and for a year or two have been discussing the cause 
of it; and we have come to the conclusion, — indeed, 
sir, we had no other to come to, — that my receipts 
diminished as the condition of my patients grew 
worse and worse in pecuniary matters. I saw that 
they received less money than they used to receive. 
White men were getting into places which they used 
to fill. Others, of my friends, with whom I consulted, 
had, I found, come to the same conclusion. We saw 
no chance of things getting better ; and, therefore, we 
are going to Africa, while there is a society ready 
and willing to pay our expenses, and before the times 
grow darker than they are." 

Another colored man, a drayman of more than ordi- 
nary intelligence, doing well, earning enough money 
for his support and able to lay by something, gave me 
as his reason for going, that the Irish and Germans 
were getting into his business: that the old feelincr 
among the whites, which had induced them to employ 
colored men by preference, no longer existed; that 
every year made matters worse ; and that, seeing this, 
he determined to emigrate, while he was still young 
enough to do something in his new home. 

I run the risk of wearying you with these anec- 
dotes; but, falling within my own knowledge, they are 



COLONIZATION. 



to me corroboration, strong of the views, which are 
here expressed, in regard to the imperious effect of 
the circumstances I have referred to. 

These circumstances, left to themselves, would 
bring about the gradual removal of the free people 
of color quietly, and as an event of natural occur- 
rence, — exciting no more surprise than the sailing 
of vessels with passengers for San Francisco does 
in one of our sea-ports. But they are not left to 
themselves. Their action is hastened by the very 
persons who deny their operation, or are struggling, 
to the utmost of their abilities, to obviate it. Modern 
abolition, which dates some twenty years back, has 
done more to promote the ultimate success of coloni- 
zation, than all the agencies which have been set on 
foot, ivith that object directly in view. And how ? 
Why, by making the relations between the two races 
a matter of constant agitation ; by forcing the public 
mind to think upon the subject; by bringing almost 
all men to the conviction that amalgamation is out 
of the question ; by creating jealousies between the 
two races, which have always resulted to the preju- 
dice of the weaker ; by making the owner of slaves 
a more suspicious and harder master than he used to 
be; by exciting him against the free blacks, as the 
agents tlirough whom massacres might be planned in 



COLONIZATION. 

neighborhoods, or on plantations, Hke that at South- 
ampton, in 1831 ; by destroying the affectionate rela- 
tions, which all familiar with the South know were 
at one time characteristic of the mixed white and 
black population ; and, so at last creating a convic- 
tion, now rapidly growing and soon to become uni- 
versal, that, as freemen, the two races can only live 
in happiness when separated, through the agency 
of that very colonization of which modern abolition 
has ever been the opponent. 

Victor Hugo may turn to Mrs. Chapman, and ask 
her if this is so ; if the agitation, into which he has 
been persuaded to throw himself, can really have had 
results so prejudicial to those in whose cause he has 
embarked : and Mrs. Chapman may tell him, as she 
doubdess believes, that the writer is mistaken. But, 
in proof of what we have said, we refer to every can- 
did man who has lived in any of the great cities since 
1821 : and more, we are willing to rely on the tes- 
timony of the intelligent free colored persons them- 
selves, in Boston, New York, Philadelphia or Balti- 
more. 

Nor could it have been otherwise. If agitation 
will put down error, it will develope truth ; and the 
great truth, which was to be developed here, was 
that already so much dwelt upon, — that the two 



COLONIZATION. 

races, incapable of amalgamation, must separate, to 
be really free. 

The colonizationist, therefore, has no real ground 
of quarrel with the abolitionist, so far as results are 
concerned. On the contrary, if his opposition has 
retarded emigration, he deserves his thanks, for he 
has forced him to adopt the rule of "festina lente" — 
in this, as in so many other instances, the best guar- 
antee of permanent success. The only true ground 
of complaint against the abolitionist is the fact, that 
he has prejudiced the comfort and the cause of those, 
whom both colonizationist and abolitionist, according 
to their respective lights, are laboring to benefit.* 

But it may be said, that the colonization societies 
are wholly incompetent to the end they aim at. Now 

* While this pamphlet has been in pfess, intellig-cnce has been 
received of the murder of Mr. Gorsuch, of Maryland, at Christiana, 
in Pennsylvania, whither he had efone in pursuit of some three 
or four runaway slaves, under the fugitive slave law. The perpe- 
trators of the crime were free colored people, with one or two white 
men, who armed themselves in resistance of the law, and deliber- 
ately shot the owner of the slaves, and wounded his son. Time has 
scarcely elapsed for a full exhibition of the public feeling- oti the 
occasion : but enough is already known of it, to shew, that the crime 
of ihcac desperate men will be visited, not only upon themselves, 
but upon the entire colored race, as it widens the increasing- gulf 
between it and the whites; corroborating the conviction, which the 
text lias dwelt upon as becoming general, that the happiness of 
the two races, when free, is inconsistent witli their continuing to- 
gether in the same land. 

2S '"" 



COLONIZATION. 



a good deal depends upon what their aim is. If it 
is to remove the entire free colored population of the 
United States, with means to be obtained from leofis- 
latures and individuals, — then colonization is, indeed, 
a drop in the bucket, and not worth prosecuting as 
a political undertaking. It will do, then, as a mis- 
sionary scheme, and will help in the suppression of 
the foreign slave trade; but nothing more. This is 
most freely granted. But if their aim is, or has been, 
to establish such a colony as the Republic of Liberia, 
which, growing in prosperity year after year, shall 
gradually become as attractive to the free colored 
man, as the United States is to the foreign emi- 
grant, — emigration to which will be promoted, not 
merely by its attractiveness, but by circumstances in 
this country rapidly accumulating, and forcing the 
conviction on the free black man's mind, that the day 
will come when there will be no alternative for him, 
but extirpation or removal — then I say, as I do say, 
in the firm belief impressed on my mind by a close 
attention to the subject for near thirty years, that 
colonization has already fulfilled its great mission; 
that it exists now, only to facilitate what nothing can 
prevent ; that the day and the hour are at hand when 
the Exodus must take place; not perhaps in this 
year or the next, in this generation or in that of our 



29 



COLONIZATION. 

children, but soon, very soon, looking to the periods 
which measure the histories of the world and the 
nations thereof. 

The finger of thfe Almighty has been apparent in 
the whole work of colonization. A nation is not to 
be transplanted like an apple tree. The black man's 
heart, enlarged in a sphere of real freedom, or dwarfed 
in the atmosphere which he breathes when his free- 
dom is but a name, — is still a human heart, endowed 
with the finest sensibilities, capable of the highest im- 
provement, as Liberia has already proved, clinging to 
the natale solum with vast tenacity, more so even than 
the white man's does; and the black man cannot, rea- 
sonably, be expected to remove from familiar places, 
without a struggling hold, yielding only to the sternest 
circumstances. It was necessary, therefore, that colo- 
nization should be a slow work. It must continue 
to be a slow one, measured, as its progress always 
will be, by human impatience. But there is ample 
time for it. The West, even unto the Pacific, is to 
be filled up. Space for years, for white and black, 
will be left for them to move in, without more than 
jostling: and the desire of the free colored people 
to emigrate, slowly formed as it must be, will increase 
with the increasing native and immigrant population 
of our country, with the growing commerce that is 



30 



COLONIZATION. 

to furnish the means of a voluntary and self-paying 
colonization, with the capacity of the colonies to re- 
ceive immigrants, and with a gradually enlarging 
intelligence among the latter, making them more 
and more fit to be the earliest citizens of the new 
republics. All this is well and wisely ordered. The 
cause is in His hands; and man may safely leave it 
there, judging even from the lights of his past expe- 
rience. Had colonization gone forward faster than it 
has done, it would ha^•e smothered itself at Monrovia 
and Cape Palmas ; and no more would have been 
heard of it. But, against the wishes of its friends — 
against their best endeavors, it has been kept back 
by One who knew better than they did ; until each 
succeeding ship-load of immigrants having had time 
to establish themselves, the result has been the pre- 
sent well-ordered governments on the coast of Africa. 

So much for the colonies. Every thing I have 
already said may, I am aware, be admitted, and 
still the effect upon our free colored population may 
be doubted. Let us look at facts in a parallel case, 
and draw our inferences from them. 

The annual increase of the whole colored popu- 
lation of the United States, slave and free, w^as, ten 
years ago, some fifty-five thousand. The result of 
the last census I have not yet learned. The white 

31" 



COLONIZATION. 

immigration of the present year will be perhaps half 
a million. Did the same commerce exist between 
this country and Africa, that crowds this immigra- 
tion upon us from Europe, it could carry an emigra- 
tion to Africa that would, of course, release us from 
the whole colored population in a very few years, 
if all, slaves and free, were then permitted to leave 
America. As we all know, however, that there is 
not such a commerce, the whole question must turn 
upon the probability of its ever existing, and then 
again upon the likelihood of the colored population 
availing themselves of it as a means of leaving the 
i United States. This last point has been already so 
i fully considered, that I shall rest, in regard to it, 
I upon what I have already said of the circumstances 
that must one day deprive the black man of the free- 
dom of choice, and force him to emigrate. 

But, while the commerce wdth Africa is compara- 
i tively small, yet it is one which is increasing with a 
! rapidity surpassing anything known in commercial 
I history, if we except the trade of San Francisco. 
i It already far surpasses the commerce of the colo- 
\ nies of this country, when they were as old as the 
I colonies on the coast of Africa — far surpasses it. 
I It must grow : it cannot be stopped. A mighty 
I continent — a quarter of the habitable globe, filled 

32 



\ COLONIZATION. 

I with a teeming population, is still to be supplied 

> with all that civilization can produce ; a population 
j which, instead of perishing as the new comers press 
I upon it, is of the same blood and lineage, and must 

unite with them as one people. 

England has long appreciated Africa's capacity 
to absorb manufactures as her sands absorb the dews. 
Hence her attempts to penetrate into the interior by 

> the expeditions which she has sent up the Niger: 
hence the costly establishments maintained by her 

I on the coast. But the interior of Africa can be 
\ reached for commercial purposes but in one way, 
and that is, through the colonies of free colored peo- 
ple from the United States established upon her 
borders. Colonies of white men will not do, because 
j they become charnel houses. Colonies of recaptured 
\ Africans will not do, as has been shown at Sierra 
I Leone, because they want the civilization necessary 
to make them the agents of civilization in its rela- 
I tions with commerce. But the free colored man from 
I America can live, for he is in the clime of his an- 
I cestors ; and, being fully civilized, and Christian too, 

I he is the agent, and the only agent, that the world 

> 

i contains, adapted to the purpose. He has already 

> proved his efficiency. 

; In no aspect of colonization has it more inter- 



COLONIZATION. 

esting relations than in its commercial aspect. The 
strife now, among the great of the old nations, Eng- 
land at their head, England first and especially, is 
the opening of new markets ; and in this all man- 
kind is interested. Her manufacturers obtain better 
prices for their goods, are able to pay better wages, 
and to give more constant employment to persons 
dependent upon them. Our manufacturers are inter- 
ested, first in a participation in the profits of the 
new market, and again, in being relieved, as the 
over production of the English manufactories finds 
its way into new countries, and no longer creates a 
glut, to the ruin of all parties, in our own. 

Human ingenuity, now more actively at work 
than ever, has facilitated all the processes of labor. 
A flier is made to revolve more rapidly, and the 
already immense production of a cotton mill is 
doubled. The slow processes of human hands are 
becoming fast superseded by the lightning-like pro- 
cesses of hands of brass and steel. In a thousand 
instances, ingenuity is spurring on production, until 
the latter gets far ahead of the demand of the ex- 
isting markets of the world. 

Now, just at the time when this over production 
is taking place, and all the suflferings consequent ; 
upon a stagnant trade afilict the manufacturing coun- 

i 

34 



COLONIZATION. 

tries of the world, colonization comes into existence; 
being able, alone able, to throw open a world to be 
filled with the products of civilization ; and compe- 
tent, in doing so, to build up the commerce, which 
is to do for Africa, in the way of facilitating emi- 
gration from this country, what commerce is doing 
for Ireland, and indeed all Europe, in transporting 
their people to our shores. The wants of Africa, 
her demands for civilization and its products, will 
build the bridge of boats, which shall make the At- 
lantic a great highway between the two countries, 
crowded with those whom circumstances will not 
suffer to remain here, and whose departure will in 
this manner be facilitated. 

Nor will this be the only effect of a state of 
things as certain to happen as the coming of to- 
morrow. Along with commerce will religion go: 
that gospel which Victor Hugo, with the confidence 
of prophecy, says we must " renounce unless slavery 
is renounced." Strange assertion ! Does he not 
know that slavery, introduced during the colonial 
times, has existed in America for upwards of two 
hundred years.? Does he not know, also, that dur- 
ing this long period, and down to the present time, 
the gospel has been preserved here in a purity and 
power, through wars and tumults, which, unless uni- 



35 



COLONIZATION. 



versal report is wofully at fault, France herself might 
envy ! Even Mrs. Chapman would, we doubt not, 
be willing to admit, that as a missionary enterprise, 
colonization had its claims to consideration ; and she 
would probably even agree to aid it, were it to con- 
fine its labors to reflecting upon Africa that gospel 
light which now shines upon America, and which, 
we are sure, she believes will continue to shine, 
even though her correspondent predicts its extinc- 
tion. But we are not without our hope, that Vic- 
tor Hugo himself will one day admit, that if slavery 
has been driven in Turkey " from the hearth of 
Omar," where it has left Mahometanism behind it, 
by the way, it has been permitted to exist "at the 
hearth of Franklin," by Him whose ways are not j 
as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts, in 
order that a nation of missionaries might be formed, 
through whose agency the prophecy should be real- 
ized, which promises that Ethiopia shall lift up her 
hands unto God. 

There is one paragraph in Victor Hugo's letter 
that we adopt most cordially, and we copy it en- 
tire : — 

" There is an inflexible logic, which dcvelopes 
more or less slowly, which fashions, which reduces 
according to a mysterious plan, perceptible only to 



COLONIZATION. 



great spirits, the facts, the men, the laws, the mo- 
rals and the people; or, better, under all human 
things, there are things divine." 

Exactly so. But whether Mrs. Chapman or Vic- 
tor Hugo are influenced by the sub-divinity here re- 
ferred to may be questionable. One thing is cer- 
tain, — that the Republic of Liberia and the Colony 
at Cape Palmas have been founded, and enjoy at 
this time an honorable and prosperous existence, by 
emigrants, the mass of whom were ignorant and un- 
lettered, and whose success, unparalleled in the his- 
tory of the world, can be attributed to nothing but 
the protection of the builder up and puller down of 
earthly kingdoms. The people wdio have done this 
are the only agents through wdiom, as already said, 
commerce can penetrate Africa, — the only mission- 
aries, who, in the providence of God, can live 
there; — they afford the only efficient means of sup- 
pressing the slave trade, which, having accomplished 
the purpose for w^hich divine wusdom permitted it, 
is to be extirpated by the children of those, whose 
fathers it brought from Africa, that their descend- 
ants might be fitted to extirpate it, when its end 
was answered. 

African colonization was commenced in 1816, 
and since then it has gone on with uniform success, 



COLONIZATION. 

I though slowly, until the results are the Republic of 
1 Liberia, and the State of Maryland's independent 
\ colony at Cape Palmas. The means with w^hich 
i these results have been produced, have been ob- 
I tained mainly from individuals, except in the case 
I of the Maryland Colony, which has been established 
\ through an appropriation of $200,000 from the State 
1 Treasury.* And, without entering into details, it 
j may be stated roundly, and without fear of contra- 
\ diction, that the history of the world presents no in- 
I stance of a colonization as successful as this has been. 
\ The ways of Providence are mysterious : but we 

! think the divine agency which controls is rather more 
I apparent in the success of the colonies that have been 
planted from this country on the coast of Africa, than 
it has been in the success which has attended the 
anti-slavery and abolition societies from their birth 
to the present day. Nor do we believe that there is 
anything, " perceptible only to great spirits," which 
either Victor Hugo or Mrs. Chapman has seen, to 
prevent our looking to the success thus far of colo- 
nization, as more likely to be the result of divine in- s 

( 

*It deserves to be mentioned, to the honor of Maryland, that 
when she was for a time unable to pay the interest on her public 
debt, the annual appropriation to the colony, filled with free colored 
people who had trusted her, was paid punctually to the day. 



38 



COLONIZATION. 

telligence, than the schemes which these two persons 
advocate. 

The practical effect of modern abolition, thus far, 
has been to disturb the glorious harmony of a happy 
people, threatening to place brother in armed array 
against brother; while, at the same time, not only 
have all the friendly and affectionate relations for- 
merly existing between the whites and the free blacks 
been, to a very great extent, if not altogether, prema- 
turely destroyed, but the bonds of the slave have been 
tightened, and' his privileges curtailed ; so that the 
acts of their pretended friends have, in their results, 
been a curse to both bond and free. 

Whether this ought to be so, — whether benevo- 
I lence, because it is ignorant, should be tolerated and 
I respected, when its theme is mischievous, and its 
\ practical working destructive, — whether the master 
> should praise and thank him who excited his slaves 
' to rise and break their chains over his head, that is, 
\ to murder him and his wife and children, — whether, 
] were the world better ordered, this should not be 
I so, is what we do not propose to argue. Taking 
I the world as we find it, we rely upon the facts we 
] know, rather than upon the speculations of a French 
poet and novelist — and a great poet and a great 
I novelist, too — even when he raises his voice at the 

39" 



COLONIZATION. \ 



instigation of an American lady, who, \ve think, \ 
might have found advisers who knew more about j 
the subject in her own country, than the gentleman 
whose "upliftings" we refer to. \ 

This letter, my dear sir, is a very long one. But \ 
the subject is the great subject of the day — and is 
inexhaustible. I have endeavored to sustain the fol- 5 
lowing propositions. < 

I. That the two races of white and black in the i 
United States must forever remain separate and dis- i 
tinct, while they continue in the same land — whether | 
all the blacks are free, or only a portion of them. 

II. That a necessary consequence of this state of 
things, as illustrated by present experience, and in 
accordance with all history, must be, that the weaker 
of the two races, not actually held as slaves, must, 
directly or indirectly, be oppressed, — the extent of the 
oppression being in proportion to the occasions of 
collision between the two, in competition for em- 
ployment. 

III. That another necessary consequence of this 
state of things is, that the two races must separate — 
in this as in all other similar cases ; or, in other 
words, there must be a colonization, — to be carried 
on like all other previous colonizations, — which may 
be facilitated by aid in tlie commencement, but in 

40" 



\ COLONIZATION. 

i which, ultimately, the emigrants must pay their own 

\ 

i expenses. 

] IV. That existing circumstances already press 

I upon the free colored man the necessity of emigra- 
I lion, and that he is beginning to appreciate its im- 
I portance. That these circumstances, growing mainly 
out of the vast increase of our white population, by 
native birth and from foreign countries, are accumu- 
lating beyond all control, and will ultimately leave 
the free colored man no alternative but emiirration. 
V. That Africa is the place for which he is des- 
tined; and that the colonies planted there, now the 
Republic of Liberia, are to be his ultimate home. 
That in Africa alone can he escape the white man's 
power; while the latter will be dependent upon him 
for all the missionary and commercial agencies in 
which he is interested. 

\T. That, while the present means for emigration 
may be supplied by individual, or other aid, yet the 
commerce, which is rapidly growing up between 
Africa and this country, will, in a brief time — look- 
ing to the ends to be obtained — furnish facilities for 
the same emigration from America to Africa that is 
now taking place between Europe and this conti- 
nent, — an emigration which would soon relieve the 
United States from its entire free colored population — \ 



I COLONIZATION. 

! and towards which, where the Irishman or German 
i has one motive to leave Europe, the free black man 
;' has ten to leave America. 

In these propositions is involved the answer to 
; the arguments of all those, including Victor Hugo, 
i if you please, who favor modern abolition as a means 
j of benefiting the blacks. It is not my purpose to 
J discuss the subject of slavery in the abstract. The 
\ scope of this letter does not include it. So far as 
\ colonization may promote emancipation, by inducing 
I masters to free their slaves to go to Africa, who 
I would not free them to remain in this country, so 
\ far only is it connected with the subject of slavery, 
i and no farther. Slavery is an existing institution, 
guaranteed by the constitution under which we live. 
! Men may think what they please of it, but have no 
] right to interfere with it. If the question were put, 
whether the United States would not be better off 
w^itli a homogeneous population of white men, than 
it now is, the majority would probably be found to 
reply in the affirmative. But when, first and fore- 
most, the now evident result of the abolition move- 
ment is a curse to the objects of it; when it wages 
a war against existing rights already protected by 
fundamental law ; when it threatens to dissolve a 



42 



COLONIZATION. 

Union like ours, — it is the duty of good men and true 
to stand up against it, even when its cause is sought 
to be promoted by the epistolary eloquence of an 
American lady, and the "uplifted" voice of a French 
poet. Anti-slavery — a false friend to the colored 
race, because of its own ignorance — seeks for freedom 
through emancipation, without reference to results. 
The true friends of the colored race, looking at con- 
sequences^ consider them in their action, and, be- 
lieving that the two races to be happy must be sepa- 
rated, advocate colonization. 

In thus complying, at so great a length, with the 
request of Mr. Coleman and yourself, I have been, 
very probably, far more diffuse than was necessary. 
My prolixity must be taken as an evidence of a 
desire to gratify your wishes, on the part of, 

Dear Sir, 

Yours, very truly and respectfully, 

JOHN H. B. LATROBE. 



43 



VICTOR HUGO TO MRS. CHAPMAN. 



[TRANSLATION,] 



MADAM: 



I HAVE scarcely any thing to add to 
your letter. I would cheerfully sign every line of it. 
Pursue your holy work. You have with you all 
e:reat souls and all orood hearts. 

You are pleased to believe, and to assure me, that \ 
my voice, in this august cause of slavery, will be \ 
listened to by the great American people, whom I i 
love so profoundly, and whose destinies, I am fain | 
to think, are closely linked with the mission of | 
France. You desire me to lift up my voice. < 

I will do it at once, and I will do it on all oc- j 
casions. I agree with you in thinking, that within j 
a definite time, — that within a time not distant, the s 
United States will repudiate slavery witli horror. 



44 



COLONIZATION. 



Slavery in such a country ! Can there be an in- 
congruity more monstrous. Barbarism installed in 
the very heart of a society, which is itself the af- 
firmation of civilization ; liberty bearing a chain ; 
blasphemy echoing from the altar; the collar of the 
negro chained to the pedestal of Washington ! It 
is a thing unheard of. I say more, it is impossible. 
Such a spectacle would destroy itself. The light 
of the nineteenth century alone is enough to de- 
stroy it. 

What ! Slavery sanctioned by law among that 
illustrious people, who for seventy years have mea- 
sured the progress of civilization by their march, 
demonstrated democracy by their power, and liberty 
by their prosperity ! Slavery in the United States ! 
It is the duty of this Republic to set such a bad 
example no longer. It is a shame; and she Was 
never born to bow her head. 

It is not when slavery is taking leave of old 
nations, that it should be received by the new. 
What ! When slavery is departing from Turkey, 
shall it rest on America! What! Drive it from 
the hearth of Omar, and adopt it at the hearth of 
Franklin! No! No! No! 

There is an inflexible logic which develops more 
or less slowly, which fashions, which redresses ac- 



45 



COLONIZATION. 



cording to a mysterious plan, perceptible only to 
great spirits, the facts, the men, the laws, the morals, 
the people ; or better, under all human things, there 



are things divine. 

Let all those great souls who love the United i 
States, as a country, be re-assured. The United ^^ 
States must renounce slavery, or they must renounce 5 
liberty. They cannot renounce liberty. They must \ 
renounce slavery or renounce the Gospel. They 
will never renounce the Gospel ! > 

Accept, Madam, with my devotion to the cause 
you advocate, the homage of my respect. 

VICTOR HUGO. 
6 July, 1851, Paris. 



46 



""1 



JOHN H. B. LATROBE TO VICTOR HUGO. 



BALTIMORE, September §6, 18S1. 
SIR: 

I HAVE the honor to enclose to you a 
publication suggested by your letter, of July 6th, to 
Mrs. Chapman. 

The authorship of this letter has arrayed you as 
one of a party, small indeed in numbers, but whose 
violence and perseverance have done much to es- 
tablish relations of unkindness, if not of hostility, 
between two sections of a great Republic, which the 
interests of true freedom, and of the human race, 
require should be united, — to interrupt that march, 
which, you are pleased to say, has, "for seventy 
years, measured the progress of civilization." Your 
name, sir, is the name of no common man. Your 



47 



COLONIZATION. 



reputation is one, which gives weight to whatever ? 

you may say: — and, if, in the publication which is | 

sent to you, the endeavor has been to shew how 
J much you are in error, the pains that have been 
I taken must be considered as the best evidence that ; 
! can be furnished of the high estimation in which I \ 

hold your talents and your influence. \ 

That you have assailed his country, is the only 

justification needed, by even the humblest of her 

sons, in an attempt to vindicate her. 

I 
I have the honor to be, I 

With sentiments of high consideration, ] 

Your obedient servant, 

JOHN H. B. LATROBE. 



48 



\ 



